“Every team goes through different things, and we’ve kind of withstood a lot”, Brady said. “We’re not at that level, but I promise you we’ll get there”. We’ve got to find ways to get off the field, and they capitalized.
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One of Brady’s favorite targets, tight end Rob Gronkowski, remains the biggest threat.
Patriots WR Brandon LaFell felt the same way about Buffalo’s stifling defense.
While the Bills defense was not able to completely contain Brady, it limited him to throwing 20-for-39 and 277 yards with one touchdown, a sack and more than 10 non-sack hits. With 10:29 left in the third quarter the game was tied at 10-10. Brady and Amendola connected for a 41-yard gain, though Amendola injured his knee on the play, and White scored a 6-yard touchdown on the next play to give the Pats a 17-10 advantage.
Well, here we are again, two 5-5 teams who desperately need to win to improve their playoff chances, not to mention grab what could be a critical head-to-head tiebreaker in a year when tiebreakers will probably decide the final wild-card spot. “You’ve got to figure out, when things aren’t going well, how to rally”.
Who’s not: The Patriots are in the bottom five in rushing yards per game. Buffalo fell to 5-5. “You’re the ones who talk about them every single day”. And that’s what championship teams do.
“They determined that Amendola had the football when the whistle was blown, so then the team with possession gets an option”.
“So the officials, they lost track of the football”.
And the game ended on another apparent refereeing blunder, with Sammy Watkins crawling out of bounds untouched near midfield but the official inexplicably signaling for the clock to run.
Referee Gene Steratore told a pool reporter that it was decided that Watkins “gave himself up in the field of play”.
McCoy’s touchdown came on the series after New England were the victim of an inadvertent whistle that took away a likely long touchdown by Danny Amendola, who caught a pass up the sideline as Brady was scrambling out of the pocket.
Shortly after that, the Bills LeSean McCoy had a 27-yard run for a touchdown, tying the game at 10. That particular drive sputtered out, and the near-automatic Gostkowski missed a 54-yard field goal. The score accurately indicated a change in the tone from one contest to the next, with Buffalo’s defense proving far more formidable on Monday than in the first meeting between the teams, albeit with a severely depleted group of Patriots receivers.
Fumbled punts didn’t help either.
After a Ryan Allen punt that was fair caught, bobbled, and then recovered by Bills defensive back/punt returner Leodis McKelvin at the BUF 16, the Bills went to work on their last offensive drive of the contest. New England’s Jonathan Freeny picked it and rumbled 5 yards before he lost the ball and it bounced out of bounds.
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BUFFALO, New York (AP) Rex Ryan expects quarterback Tyrod Taylor will be healthy enough to start in the Buffalo Bills’ game at Kansas City this weekend. He remained in the game after apparently injuring his shoulder late.
